July 2015 - AMSAT-BB - mailman.amsat.org

EQUiSat Optical Beacon CubeSat
by Trevor . 17 Oct '18

17 Oct '18

Students at the Ivy League Brown University are developing an amateur radio satellite EQUiSat that will carry a Xenon Flash Tube (XFT) subsystem to act as an Optical Beacon that should be visible to the unaided eye of observers on Earth. See http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10635 73 Trevor M5AKA AMSAK-UK http://www.amsat-uk.org/ ----

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LVB Tracker USB serial port driver for Windows 7 x64?
by Bill Bordy, NJ1H 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Has anyone located a driver for the LVB Tracker internal USB to serial port adapter on Windows 7 x64? If not, has anyone reverted to the serial port connection on LVB Tracker and used an external USB to serial port adapter successfully with SatPC32 on Windows 7 x64? I have an Edgeport multiple USB to serial port that has drivers for Windows 7 x64 that I will use if I have to. I would prefer using the LVB Tracker with its USB to serial adapter if someone has another solution. 73, Bill NJ1H

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AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010
by Mark L. Hammond 01 Jul '16

01 Jul '16

Hi All, Here is a quick AO-16 update. On Sunday I turned AO-16 long enough to get some telemetry packets. The satellite would remain on for less than one minute after being commanded on. A quick test of the "bent pipe" voice mode repeater was successful. . The "hardware watchdog timer problem" is still evident; as expected, spacecraft temperatures are insufficient to keep the transmitter ON (needs to be above 15 deg C). Orbit projections suggest that satellite illumination conditions will not result in increased temperatures for nearly 10 years. Command stations do periodically turn AO-16 "ON" to check on its condition and see if the hardware timer problem has "automagically" fixed itself (which in not anticipated, but who knows...). AO-16 telemetry 3 Oct 2010 1838 utc PACSAT MBL Telemetry Decoder Ver. 1.3 (c) Mike Rupprecht, DK3WN =============================================================================== (average values) +10V Battery Bus : 0.00 V Battery Charge Reg : 0.55 mA Base Temp : 9.07 °C PSK RF Out : 1.90 W +5V RX Bus : 4.87 V +8.5V RX Bus : 8.49 V +10V RX Bus : 11.24 V Here is another teaser :) Several months ago I commanded the AO-16 S-band transmitter ON; it too remains functional (albeit weak), and was received by me, Drew KO4MA, and Alan WA4SCA. 73, -- Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]

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CAPE-2 heard in France
by Jean-Pierre Godet 25 Sep '15

25 Sep '15

Dear friends from University of loisiana in Lafayette, Your bird was heard in the North of France when flying over Oran (Algeria), orbit number 204, especially the CW beacon (on 145.823 MHz +- Doppler) between 12:12:52 and 12:13:06 UTC, content was "EUL CAPE 2 OR UF231". The signal was somewhat chirpy, but it's exactly the sound which the real lover of CW like above all. Really ! :-) http://f5yg.pagesperso-orange.fr/forum/CAPE-2_orb204_03dec2013.mp3 The signal to noise ratio is not too good because I'm using an old AM/FM scanner from the 80s heterodyned by my medium wave homebrew transmitter fitted with a 456.9 Xtal. The antenna was a vertical half-wave inside the attic. The next orbit, number 205, was heard too, with the CW beacon affected at that time by a hoarse voice and suffering from a strong fadding. So I'm not absolutly sure, poor lonesome telegraphist, of my human decoding, "M5UL CAPE 2 ÜR 5045", something like that. It was over the East coast of Spain, between 12:12:52 and 12:13:06 : http://f5yg.pagesperso-orange.fr/forum/CAPE-2_orb205_03dec2013.mp3 Congratulation to the Cajun Advanced Picosat Experiment team from France ! Jean-Pierre F5YG -- Powered by Linux (Slackware 10.0 - kernel 2.4.26)

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Re: [amsat-bb] FUNcube-1 operations
by Graham Shirville 18 Sep '15

18 Sep '15

Good evening, I can report that FUNcube-1 was switched back to autonomous mode at around 21:19 UTC this evening. A reminder for next weekend – As AMSAT-UK is holding their Collloquium event in Guildford Surrey, it is expected that FUNcube-1 will be switched to continuous transponder mode , exceptionally, from Thursday evening (July 23rd) until either Sunday evening (July 26th) or, more likely, Monday evening (July 27th). This will enable the Colloquium attendees to view or demonstrate and enjoy the transponder operations for the maximum possible time. Thanks for your understanding! best 73 Graham G3VZV

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PSAT PSK31 experimental software
by aflowers＠frontiernet.net 25 Aug '15

25 Aug '15

I put together an experimental program called DopplerPSK to compensate for the Doppler shift on the NO-84 (or NO-83) PSK31 uplink. In essence, its a PSK31 transmitter that is merged with an orbital propagator to cause your transmitted signal to drift exactly opposite to uplink Doppler effect. It does this in a phase-continuous correction so that you don't get errors due to discontinuous frequency adjustments from controlling a radio in discrete steps. In the case of PSAT and BricSat, it should cause your signal to stay at constant frequency in the satellite's uplink receiver, and thus you should get a stable frequency on the FM downlink as well. In turn, this means you should be able to use your favorite PSK31 demodulating software to copy the downlink since the frequency drift should stay well within the AFC tolerance of the software. Anyway, if there are any adventurous people who are set up to give this a go, I would be interested in seeing if it actually works. You can find a rough quick-start guide (which contains an explanation of how it works and what you need to get started) and the application package on the rather minimalist page here: http://www.frontiernet.net/~aflowers/dopplerpsk/dopplerpsk.html It's an experiment, so be prepared for disappointment. I am :-) Andy K0SM/2

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Decoding UO-11 (UOSAT-2)
by Bob KD7YZ 01 Aug '15

01 Aug '15

Once I got the correct Mode-Setting for UO-11, I had no trouble getting what I think are good decode sets. Others here had said UO-11 gives garbage decodes. The last couple days I have gotten true garbage, a snippet here: -------------------------------------------------------- 0pA}4VRX 4CKIp(zhp#W13 z R<#`{M|4C 2Gr%xa5,RtCX`Xa\:#X{ <("!"i(TpB?B$B7(4="BzF<("ai)5H)0L$0\C/~HPT, $"b}EE=0"lw` L`V A-.7Pq\E54,xX|/ab(+F! ^88 (a`h"i!B @, #%\95!!_C$[P`dD &4 XhQHV3& )FPj( rPA4-`}BH!}0PF!/B-.H9)GP0jSDd rI"-<er HbP 9fQyMb3\@`1_`TEBfS(!YhyC&a@9Dt%|&8N5U0A.N7TX"@k82!|`FF@PtT!ed@dLtr12^I $#xP"VvIBJ$ -------------------------------------------------------------- So this morning I started fiddling around with the Mode-Settings Charset as-well-as Invert. I walked thru the available Charsets in UISS. Then I toggled Invert for each. Finally when I got back to Ascii-7 and inverted, it all worked/decoded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 000000010001020002030003040004050005060006070007080008090009 100001110000120003130002140005150004160007170006180009190008 20000221000322000023000124000625000726000427000528000A29000B 30000331000232000133000034000735000636000537000438000B39000A 40000441000542000643000744000045000146000247000348000C49000D 50000551000452000753000654000155000056000357000258000D59000C 60800E615FC1620105633341644402651E0C66200267000168000E69000F UOSAT-2 1408060015554 000000010001020002030003040004050005060006070007080008090009 100001110000120003130002140005150004160007170006180009190008 20000221000322000023000124000625000726000427000528000A29000B 30000331000232000133000034000735000636000537000438000B39000A 40000441000542000643000744000045000146000247000348000C49000D 50000551000452000753000654000155000056000357000258000D59000C 60800E615FC1620105633341644402651E0C66200267000168000E69000F UOSAT-2 1408060015559 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am certain the Mode-Settings were the same from begin with garbage decodes to end when I returned them to original settings. go figure. 73, -- Bob KD7YZ http://www.qrz.com/db/kd7yz AMSAT LM#901

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AMSAT-NA office phone and internet unavailable
by Alan 31 Jul '15

31 Jul '15

All, As of 1100 EDT Friday, the AMSAT-NA office phone and internet service is down. Both are supplied by Comcast. The voice mail is operative, but we do not have an estimate of when normal service will be restored. 73s, Alan WA4SCA ----------------------------------- Keep Calm and Carry On

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FS: ICOM 970H TRANSCEIVER
by Bill Booth 31 Jul '15

31 Jul '15

I am selling my ICOM IC-970H Higher Power version 144-430 all mode transceiver. This unit has been well cared for, and comes from a non smoking environment. It has been my primary rig for satellite, repeater and VHF/UHF work since I purchased it new. This sale comes as part of my down sizing for an eventual move, and the fact that I hardly use it anymore. I really do miss A040. I have used this for many satellite, contacts, but the best was in 2009 when I contacted W5KWQ, Richard Garriott on the International Space Station. The only things I added over time were the electronic keyer board and the tone board, both of which are internal. To get maxim exposure to those who may be interested I have listed in on eBay as item number 181815105226 Thanks for the use of the reflector for this post. -- Bill Booth VE3NXK Sundridge ON, Canada 79.23.37 W x 45.46.18 N FN05ns Visit my weather WebCam at http://www.almaguin.com/wxcurrent/weather.html Organ and Tissue Donation - The Gift of Life Talk to your family. Your decision can make a difference.

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FUNcube Warehouse
by dave＠g4dpz.me.uk 31 Jul '15

31 Jul '15

Hi We are investigating the server error being returned when the page is shown in the browser. Will update as soon as we know anything. 73 Dave, G4DPZ Sent from my iPhone

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